Fabric conveying apparatus



1951 c. T. GALLINGER 9,

FABRIC CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 18, 1947 C'f d If Gar/fingerINVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 25, 1951 FABRIC CONVEYING APPARATUS Clyde T.Gallinger, Wilmington, Del., assignor to E. I. du Pont de Nemoursmington, Del.,

& Company, Wila corporation of Delaware Application October 18, 1947,Serial No. 780,736

1 Claim.

This invention relates to fabric conveying apparatus, and moreparticularly it relates to improvements in apparatus for the continuousmovement of fabric through a storage member between fabric treatmentoperations, for example, between operations involving steaming,scouring, bleaching, and dyeing of fabrics.

In the continuous treatment of fabrics it is frequently necessary tostore the fabric between treating operations at given temperatureconditions for extended periods of time. Since the fabric must be incontinuous movement and yet must be stored under given conditions, thefabric is customarily passed through a storage chamber, for example, aconventional storage J-box, into which the fabric is plaited to greatlyreduce its rate of movement for the necessary time interval. Suchstorage chambers are often of large dimensions and the fabric incontinuous rope form is plaited back and forth in one dimension of thechamber and simultaneously traversed back and forth in the otherdimension of the chamber, thus packing a great quantity of fabric intothe storage chamber through which the packed fabric mass moves veryslowly. After moving through the chamber, the continuous fabric rope isdrawn from the other end of the chamber to the next processingoperation. In order to operate such a continuous fabric treatingprocess, involving a number of treating operations and one or morestorage periods, economically it is necessary that the linear speed ofthe continuous fabric rope, wet with treating solution, be as fast aspossible and the storage chamher have a correspondingly large size togive the necessary storage delay. Moreover, in order that such a largemass of fabric may move slowly through a large storage chamber withoutobjectionable tension or stress on the fabric, it must be forwarded,plaited, and traversed in a substantially positive and uniform manner.

The combined forwarding, plaiting, and traversing apparatus heretoforeused in transporting and piling fabric in continuous rope form intostorage chambers has been unsatisfactory for several reasons. Suchpreviously known apparatus was either too slow in fabric-forwardingspeed because the fabric was not forwarded in a sufficiently positivemanner, or it was forwarded in a too positive manner and therebyimparted undesirable tension on the wet fabric. The plaiting mechanismof previously known apparatus often failed to lay the fabric uniformlyfrom side to side of the storage chamber or caused the wet fabric to beslapped against the sidewalls of the chamber and thereby impartedundesirable stresses on the fabric and resulted in piling of the fabrichigher at the sidewalls than through the center portion of the chamber.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to bution member 24 isconnected 2 provide a fabric forwarding and plaiting mechanism for thepiling of a wet fabric rope in a storage chamber, which mechanism willforward the fabric in a rapid and uniform manner without impartingundesirable tension or stress on the fabric and which will pile thefabric in the storage chamber in a rapid and uniform manner.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention will be more easily understood by reference to thefollowing detailed description when taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view, with parts cut away, of one form ofapparatus embodying the structure of this invention, showing a fabrictreating apparatus for a continuous fabric rope and comprising asteaming mechanism, fabric forwarding, traversing, and plaitingmechanisms, and a storage J-box;

Fig. 2 is a partial sectional the line A-A of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view taken from position BB of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, showing a, driving mechanism for the yarnforwarding and plaiting mechanism of this invention.

Referring to the drawings, in which like parts are designated by likereference characters. numeral l0 designates a fabric gathered togetherin continuous rope form for steaming and storage in a J-box II. Thefabric in is forwarded and guided by rolls l4 and I6 into a steamingreceptacle 18. The receptacle I8 is sufficiently large incross-sectional dimensions that the fabric rope Ill doubles up and packsinto a relatively slow moving mass that will take up the steam as itmoves therethrough, thereby avoiding waste leakage of steam to theatmosphere. The steaming receptacle is shown square in cross-section andin the approximate form of the letter J. The exit end of receptacle I8is preferably tapered, as shown, and is connected to a steaming tube 22through which the fabric is passed in the form of a single linear strandfor preliminary steaming. A steam Supply and distrito the steaming tube22. This member 24 may be of the type disclosed in Poesl Patent No.2,304,474, or it may supply a mixture of steam and air as disclosed inPoesl Patent No. 2,346,186.

The fabric rope is passed from the exit end of tube 22 through the guidering 25 of a traversing mechanism. Guide ring 25 is positioned at viewtaken along the end of oscillating traversing lever 28 which is mountedxon shaft 30 on the inside of the enclosed J-box l2. The shaft 30 isjournaled in the side-wail" of the J-box II, as shown, and is rotatedback and forth by means of reversing motor 32, single-threaded driveshaft I, inter- .nally threaded follower 55, and slotted bar 58,

all of which are mounted on the outside of the J-box I2.

The fabric rope I is drawn from the steaming receptacle l8, through tube22 and guide ring 26 by means of a pair of slatted draw reels 0. Each ofthe reels 40 is comprised of shafts 42, a pair of spaced discs 44, and aplurality of axially extending spaced slats 46. The two shafts 42 arejournalled in and project through the end walls of the J-box near thetop thereof, The reels are both mounted for positive rotation in thedirection of the arrows shown in Fig. 2 with the slats on the two reelsintermeshing so as to impart a semi positive pull on the fabric rope.The two reels are preferably made adjustable toward and away from eachother by means of an adjusting means 61 comprising a journal for one ofthe reel shafts which journal can be fixed at any position along ahorizontal slot and thereby adapted to move the shafts 42 toward andaway from each other'so that the degree of pull on the fabric rope maybe adjusted to give the desired positiveness of pull without unduestress or tension on the fabric.

From the slatted reels 40, the fabric rope drops down by gravity towardthe approximate center between the walls I3 and I5 of the J-box. Thefall of the fabric rope from the reels 40 is interrupted by twooscillating plaiting wings 50. These two plaitin wings 50 are fixed onshafts 52 which are journaled in and project through the end walls ofthe J-box approximately below the two reel shafts 42. The shafts 52 arerotated back and forth in unison with each other by means of anadjustable four-bar linkage comprising fixed bars 54, 56, and 58, andadjustable bar 69. The driving motion is imparted to the four-barlinkage by connection of bar 58 to an eccentrically-mounted pin 62 onrotating wheel 64, as shown in Fig. 4.

A pair of sprocket wheels 66 and 68 are fixed on the projecting ends ofreel shafts 42. The sprocket wheels 56 and 68 are driven by means ofchain connecting the same to a sprocket wheel 12 positioned on maindrive shaft 14. An idler sprocket 16 mounted on a stub shaft 18 is alsopreferably provided for carrying chain I0. Wheel 64 may be a sprocket orpulley mounted on shaft 80, and is also driven from main drive shaft 14by a chain or belt driven by drive wheel 82 positioned on shaft 14. Ifdesired, a duplicate drive such as shown in Fig. 4 may be provided onboth ends of J-box I2.

The fabric rope forwarding mechanism, comprising the slatted reels, andthe fabric plaiting mechanism, comprising the synchronized plaitingwings described above, function, in combination with each other, toforward the fabric rope at a high, uniform rate of speed and to pile therope in the J-box in fiat, even, uniform mass from wall to wall whichwill move through the J-box without tension and without entanglement.This improved mechanism operates as follows:

The fabric rope I0 is drawn from the steaming tube, or other apparatus,in a semi-positive manner by the slatted reels 40, the slats of opposingreels intermeshing somewhat in the manner of intermeshing gear teeth.The shafts of the reels are spaced from each other at such a distancethat the intermeshing slats take a semi-positive bite on the rope toforward the same in a rapid, uniform manner without undue slippage; yetthe fabric will not be squeezed to remove any material amount of liquidcontained therein, or to place any objectionable amount of tension onthe fabric. The plaiting wings guide the fabric from side to side of theJ-box. Since the two wings move in unison with each other, one wingfunctions to move the fabric rope in one direction of movement and theother wi functions to move the rope in the other direction of movement.Furthermore, the two wings always function together so that one wingmoves the fabric across the J-box and the other wing prevents the movingfabric from being slapped against the side wall of the J-box.

Many modifications of the apparatus abovedescribed can be made withinthe scope of the invention. For example, the slats on the slatted reelsmay be round, as shown, or they may be square, triangular,semi-circular, or of any other configuration. The plaiting wings mayhave solid surfaces as shown, or they may be perforated, or have aslatted construction. The driving means may consist of a chain andsprocket mechanism, as shown, or it may consist of a series ofintermeshing gears, as desired.

Since it is obvious that many changes and modifications can be made inthe above-described mechanism without departing from the nature andspirit of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention isnot to be limited to the details above described except as set forth inthe appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In an apparatus for the forwarding and plaiting of fabric downwardlyinto an open end of a vertical leg of a J-shaped storage receptacle, apair of intermeshing slatted fabric forwarding reels positioned adjacentthe open end of said leg with the intersecting sections of said reelsabove the approximate center of said open end, means for rotating saidreels in a direction to forward a fabric passing'between said reelsdownwardly into the approximate center of the said open end, means fortraversing said fabric back and forth axially between said reels, awinglike plaiting member oscillatably mounted approximately beneath theaxis of each of said reels to intercept the downwardly passing fabricand plait the same between the walls of said leg said plaiting membersconnected to each other to oscillate in unison, and means foroscillating said members, the rate of oscillation of said members beingsynchronized with the rate of rotation of said reels.

CLYDE T. GALLINGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 994,245 Butler June 6, 19111,074,567 Gantt Sept. 30, 1913 1,613,196 Riggs et al Jan. 4, 1927FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 502,428 Great Britain Mar. 17, 1939

